Guests

Just a short note to say we have a Houston TX client with us at Dendro Park Ranch for a DG plains game hunt special ///

Briefly,

The trip started off with a (lot of hassles) due to the SAA strike and our client arrived two days late with the initial flight delay to leave Atlanta resulting in missing the connect to Livingstone, and having to overnight courtesy of SAA in Jo-burg

To cut a long story short, Cameron arrived @ the ranch on Monday Africa time, and settled into camp OK, albeit a bit tired from the delays and flight hassles

But as it turns out there is good news from the bush, as my sister in law Jessie in SA today rec'd a satellite phone call from Zambis saying Cameron is (over the moon) as he has just taken a nice male Leopard and also a 58" Kudu, so that has made up for his travel stress it seems

When I get pictures sometime in the future I will post them

Peter

Guests

Our PH Dene came across a Pangolin whilst setting up the Leopard blind for Cameron



Pangolins, sometimes called scaly anteaters, are covered with protective horny, overlapping scales. They sometimes are erroneously called armadillos, and although the two do superficially resemble one another, armadillos are different animals found only in the Americas.


Nice 58" Kudu taken -- Any guess on the rifle Cameron used ??


Cameron with sharps and pig

Regards, Peter

You must be referring to the Blaaah-Zer in pic#2.

quote:

Originally posted by 475Guy:
You must be referring to the Blaaah-Zer in pic#2.

475Guy

You are certainly a (switched on cookie) as per our/my local lingo here in NZ, well done SIR

You guys in the USA know your armoury, you are XPERTS to put it mildly

SIG BLAZER was used with 2 barrels one in 7mm Mag the other in 375 H&H


Cameron with his Leopard - Roland ward 16" Skull I believe!

Dene and Cameron went into blind at 4 pm .. the Leopard came in just on sunset and Cameron took it.


Cameron with PH Dene



Peter

Nice kitty! The Kudu is pretty darn nice as well.

Congratulations to the hunter.

Peter,

Great pictures. Was spots taken on the Dendro property?

Looks like a great hunt!

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanahile:
Peter,

Great pictures. Was spots taken on the Dendro property?

Hi Bwanahile

Hope you are keeping well.

Yes Dene noticed some big spoor a few weeks back now during another clients hunt and he advised Jessie in SA whom passed on the message to me ... I then contacted Cameron as I knew he was after a Leopard opportunity, so with luck he had a planned break from his work schedule and basically jumped on a plane as soon as practicle and came on over. No doubt Dene would have then baited to keep the interest going and Cameron got the cat on his second or third day in camp I believe

Regards, Peter

Great leopard. Excellent kudu. Looks like the hassle to get to Zambia was worth it in the long run! Can't wait to see some of your Roan trophies this year!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Great leopard. Excellent kudu. Looks like the hassle to get to Zambia was worth it in the long run! Can't wait to see some of your Roan trophies this year!

bwanamrm

We did not allocate any Roan this 2005 season as we had taken out a few in the past couple of seasons ...

Roan are (very expensive to hunt) for the average (jo blow) and also we dont want to hunt them tooooooooo hard as they are a PRIME GAME SPECIE

Essentially we are a cape buffalo hunting operation but with some managed opportunities to add on a few local zambia specie plains game as well. Our main plains game operation is in SA

Regards, Peter

In talking with a representative at your booth at the Houston Show, he told me you would be taking a couple off the property this year. His booth was next to Ken Wilson's and Ken actually made the introduction. He must be mistaken...even though I discussed hunting with him next year for buff and roan. Guess I ain't no ordinary jo?

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
In talking with a representative at your booth at the Houston Show, he told me you would be taking a couple off the property this year. His booth was next to Ken Wilson's and Ken actually made the introduction. He must be mistaken...even though I discussed hunting with him next year for buff and roan. Guess I ain't no ordinary jo?

As it turned out we were essentially very busy with cape buff hunting this year and Roan went on backburner //

We had a client take a one horned Roan a few years back would you believe, he figured it was very rare !!!

Very nice Leopard. 16" skull, what does that translate into, weight-wise? Pardon my ignorance.

quote:

Originally posted by 475Guy:
Very nice Leopard. 16" skull, what does that translate into, weight-wise? Pardon my ignorance.

Persoannly I dont know all the specifics about leopard measurements or statistics, I can only point you to Robertsons information in Perfect Shot /

Trophy Assessment

The spoor of a mature tom is larger than that of the largest female, and any tom seven feet or longer in overall body length can be regarded as a good trophy.

When spoor is found, single out a clear print and observe it carefully. Cut a thin stick to the exact length of the front pad's diameter, mark it with a single notch (for identification purposes), and measure its length.

Cut a separate stick for each set of tracks found, and mark each one individually. Keep the sticks in your pocket for comparison purposes.

A trophy leopard's pads will be 3 ½ to 4 inches long. The largest spoor found in an area will probably be that of a tom and should be your first choice for baiting.

It is a leopard's skull that is measured for the record books. The SCI leopard standard is method No. 18, which combines the skull's length and greatest width to the closest one-sixteenth of an inch.

The minimum score to qualify is 14 inches, and the current No. 1 scores 19 2/16inches.

No PH will ever be able to accurately estimate a live tom's skull measurement, but if the animal is mature and longer than seven feet overall, it will usually make it into the book with ease.

HERE is the FULL Leopard information, good reading /

Robertson - pdf file



Peter

Thanks, Peter. That was very interesting reading. Anyway of getting into more stuff like that? Anyways, looks like weight has nothing with a trophy unless one has to carry it to the Bakke. As I understand it, skull size along with over-all length is the determining factor.